Walking into Tsuki, their dim
lighting and ample group seating sure feels like an izakaya. But, after sitting
down and tuning into the strange mix of music playing in the background (some
top 40, folk and country) you can tell already it will be a bit different. Tsuki
attracts groups of friends ready to have a great time. With pitchers of Sapporo
for $16.99 and bottles of soju for $13.99, drinking is certainly affordable and
makes the night more interesting.

The buttered squid ($8) is a dish I’d recommend ordering. Not only is it
delicious, but also such a great deal! An entire squid is grilled and basted
with butter. The result is a smoky and tender squid with plenty of pieces to
share amongst a group.

As a warning, come with a large group if you're going to order the seafood
pancake ($12) - its huge and enough to feed ten. Cut into thick wedges, each has big pieces of green onion, beans and calamari mixed throughout.
Personally, I’d like the pancake thinner so there's the chance to develop more crust and the middle wouldn’t be as mushy. Also, a varied selection of
seafood such as shrimp and clams would be even better as I found in most dishes
we ordered squid was prevalent. And finally, the batter needed more salt; when
you ate it without dousing the pancake with the spicy soy sauce on the side it
was rather plain.

The cheese buldak ($16) was essentially strips of spicy chicken covered with
cheese on a bed of vegetables (onion, cabbage and bean sprouts). The gooey melted
cheese over everything gave the dish a sense of eating a protein rich poutine.
The thin chicken strips did tend to get a bit dry if they weren’t eaten quickly
but generally wasn’t a bad dish.

My friends, who have been numerous times, swears by the spicy snail ($15). It’s
served cold and the snails cut into smaller pieces and mixed with sweet and
spicy douchouchang sauce and lettuce. If you’re squeamish about trying snails, this is the dish for you as its all covered and hard to see. On the side, were
cold vermicelli noodles that were sadly overcooked so it became mushy and stuck
in clumps. All in all, I enjoyed the flavours and the refreshing nature of it.

Tsuki’s tako yaki ($7) were disappointing. Indeed, it had enough sauces and
bonito flakes on it to give them flavour, but the batter was
so mushy that it resembled eating a glutinous rice ball more than the crisp
fluffy tako yaki you’d expect.

There was a hefty portion of tempura ($9) with plenty of shrimp and vegetables
(asparagus, sweet potato and pumpkin). Each piece was crispy and the light
sweet green onion soy sauce on the side was a nice change.

Maybe it was due to when I received the dish, but found the pork kimchi
durachigi ($14) needed more meat – there was simply so much kimchi! Served in a
sizzling pan everything stayed piping hot and released an extra level of
spiciness to the cabbage. Personally, it wasn’t my favourite as found it was
mostly just hot kimchi.

The maguro tataki ($14) is another passable dish. Although nicely presented it
lacked the bold citrusy flavours from being lightly marinated in an onion
sauce I normally enjoy.

Tsuki’s menu is not all about hot dishes, they also have a variety of sushi
rolls. All the ones we ordered were made with a vibrant black rice (actually
purple in colour), and similar to what accompanies the soon tofu at Buk ChangDong Soon Tofu. The dynamite roll ($9) was decent with the classic tempura
shrimp, creamy avocado and crunchy cucumbers. In Tsuki’s case it is drizzled
with a sweet terryiaki glaze.

The spicy salmon roll ($6) had tons of the spicy mayonnaise on it; not the most
esthetically pleasing to look at, but provided a great kick of flavour. There were
no tempura battered bits with it at all, but rather a simple large piece of
salmon which I enjoyed.

A great idea for some fun is the Russian roulette roll ($7). The maki itself is
just salmon and avocado topped with a tangy mayo sauce. The novelty is that one
piece (out of six) has tons of wasabi mixed into it. So, tables are encouraged
to have everyone grab a piece and bite into it together – it’s quite
entertaining to see the look on the unlucky person’s face (needless to say it
wasn’t me!)

All in all, Tsuki offers great service and decent food at very reasonable
prices. They are a popular restaurant in the neighbourhood with every table
occupied during our weekend visit. The staff are amazingly friendly. Our
waiter David was so helpful throughout the night – he even went around to find
us extra soju bottle caps for drinking games (who would have known a simple cap
could offer so much entertainment)!
My suggestion is to come in larger groups
(six would be ideal) as there are tons of dishes to try and more than
enough of each to pass along. Plus, it’s the type of place you can get loud and
rowdy and other patrons just don’t seem to mind.